This is an excellent round up of the problems that have plagued LJ of late, which are, in turn an interesting insight into the implications of running something that truly is a global service. The short version: if you are an English language user who is tempted to complain about LJ's recent down time, you should probably shut the fuck up before you embarrass the rest of us. And if you are an English language user who isn't actually *paying* for the service, and you're tempted to complain, please make do so a long, long way away from me, because I'd hate to have to beat you with something heavy.

As annoying as the downtime has been, it has served to bring to light the "other half" of LJ's user base in Russia, and to explain the importance of the journal platform to freedom of speech in that country. Enough so there are those who would see that platform go down. It really makes you think about the difference perspective makes. For us, LJ is a place we keep up with our friends, do memes, roleplay, write. For Russia, it's the place where people get a chance to know the truth of what's going on in the country and for ordinary people to have a voice.

Did you know that they ban facebook, wikipedia, and hulu in china? There are workarounds if you're sneaky but it's so stupid how far the government will go to limit free speech. And this coming from a born and bred socialist.